Written by Madison Boyce
On Friday, October, 23rd the Upstate New York ska-punk band Millington dropped their second EP of the year. Earlier in 2020, they dropped “Beatdown Generation”, easily one of my favorite releases so far this year (full review here).
Coming off of that release, they put out “Brass Emo Vol. 1”. The six-track cover EP includes covers of songs by artists like Less Than Jake, My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy, Trash Boat, and even THE DU. Within this short tracklist, Millington is accompanied by four different features; Call Me Malcolm, Half Past Two, Emily Mitchell, and John Fatuzzo.
The EP opens up with a cover of “Strangers” by Trash Boat, with a feature from Call Me Malcolm. I hadn’t listened to the original until Millington announced the cover was going to be on the EP, and right off the bat, I could tell they were going to crush it. They add the “brass” onto the “emo” in such a way that makes me think the songs could have been better with horns from the start.
Up next is “Look What Happened”, which is originally performed by Less Than Jake. I was super excited about this one when the band shared the features for this EP, because Half Past Two is one of my favorite bands right now. The collaboration between two lesser-known ska bands covering a well-known ska band is cool to see.
A few months ago, Millington covered “Vindicated” by Dashboard Confessional and posted it on their YouTube channel. Like the Trash Boat song, I hadn’t listened to the original until the band posted their cover.
Out of this entire EP, this has to be my favorite track. One of my favorite things about Millington is how powerful Cody Okonski’s vocals are and that shines through on this track.
With “The Ghost of You”, originally performed by emo greats My Chemical Romance, the band was accompanied by Emily Mitchell. Her softer vocals in place of Gerard Way's deeper, raspier vocals made this much more of an enjoyable listening experience for me.
I didn’t know what to expect for the scream at the end of the song, but Okonski absolutely nailed it. I would love to see more screams from him in future Millington tracks.
In addition to “Vindicated”, Millington put up a cover of “XO” by Fall Out Boy on their YouTube channel prior to the EP's release. Vocalist Cody Okonski reminds me so much of Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump, which really made this track.
The EP definitely goes out with a bang with “Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town”, originally performed by THE DU, a Japanese band who famously performed this as the theme song for the fourth season of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”. This track is a stand-out because it’s sung completely in Japanese, a language that fans will know frontman Okonski has always had an interest in, but the whole band joins in on this one!
All in all, Millington further proves to be one of the strongest bands in their scene, by putting out their own hits but also by covering songs that wouldn’t necessarily be expected from them. Cody Okonski produces all of Millington's music on his own in his house, and for them to release two EPs this year really shows their passion for music.
If you are a fan of any of the bands covered on this release, I highly suggest checking this EP out along with “Beatdown Generation”, which was only released a few months ago. If you've listened to "Emo Brass Vol. 1", let us know what your favorite cover is by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw.
Keep up to date in the world of Millington by following them on Twitter @millingtweets and on Instagram @millingtontheband. You can further support the band by checking out their merch store here.
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